"Bits & Pieces from March 2014.....

March 3, 2014...

"Satan is very good at what he does and he has the hearts of a lot of people here in Georgia confusing them with the cunning craftiness of man and all of these deceiving wolves in sheep's clothing and he is turning so many of the hearts of the simple to these perverse doctrines that are so wrong and then they are terribly blinded and don't want to open their eyes to see how there is so much more!! It's so sad sometimes cause you know these people would be so great for the church and it would bless their lives but they don't want to venture out from what they were raised in and they don't want to change and they are comfortable. And then you have to be supportive of their agency... it sucks. but you're right that God does know each one of his children and hopefully if not on this side then on the next they will have the chance to accept it there.

But God knows why he sent me here and I think I know as well. I have faced trials and tribulations through my life but usually never had to stand up for what I believed in because we were all of the same faith. Being out here has taught me for one, how to stand on my own two feet no matter the circumstance. Here I have the opportunity to say "I'm a MORMON and I'm proud of it" and I love sharing with people what we believe and why we believe it. Even though a lot of people here will start yellin and swearin and try to bible bash with you I know that its the true church. They try sooo hard to prove us wrong when NOBODY has been able to do it for 184 years and they can keep trying all they want but we know that Joseph Smith did restore this church through the power and authority of God and restored all the keys of the Priesthood. And we know that when all the world comes crashing down this church and the righteous that follow its teaching will stand tall and strong! And it's the greatest blessing ever. This week was pretty slow for us. It was hard to get in and teach people and nobody really wanted to talk with us.  We did find 3 new gators but it was a testimony builder to me that no matter the outcome of the situation or the week I know that what I am doing is right and no matter what my Heavenly Father loves me. And I'm so grateful for that knowledge! Being on a mission is so much fun. You get to experience so many different emotions and learn how to cope with them"

March 10, 2014...

" this week for us was amazing! I guess that last week was just a trial of our faith to see if we would kick ourselves into gear and work harder than we have before! We had exchanges with the zone leaders on Friday and since we live so far away from them they both just come to our area and we do a blast and that's exactly what we needed. We killed it that day and found 9 new gators and put 3 of them on date!! Me and Elder Erickson found 8 of those and put 2 of them on date! So basically we had sooo much faith and found everybody. And then the rest of the week me and Elder J worked hard everyday and found 5 more gators and taught a butt load of people and we had an amazing week regarding those numbers! It was exhausting at times but when we are the most tired is when we are having the most fun.  Some of the lessons we were in I was fighting so hard to not fall asleep! Like I would sit on the floor so I didn't fall asleep! But it was such a blessing to find all these people cause that's what we have needed to do is to pick up our pool of people. and we're not done. We are expecting to do this every week! So one of these people that we found is a man named Bartow .This is when we were on exchanges but I have met Bartow before. He is a part member family, his wife has been a member for about 45 years now! They are about 70-75 and amazing. Sis Keaton fell and broke her hip 3 months ago and that's how I know them cause we went and gave her a blessing and Bartow actually broke his last July so they both are limping around but we decided just to go see them to see how she was doing and when we were there we got into a discussion with Bartow to see why he had never joined the church, because he also had 2 sons serve missions!!  He was giving reasons and one was that he didn't see any proof of the Book of Mormon anywhere from when they came over here to the Americas.  Elder Erickson, the smart elder that he is, brought up the Mayans and ancient ruins down in Mexico and Guatamala and all the finds that they have that help support the Book of Mormon and linking the Jaredites and Lehites to the ancient Mayans and the ancient indians and all the discoveries that they have found. So he got VERY INTERESTED and the elder said he had a talk that described it all and we would get it to him on Thursday BUT  we asked him if he came to know that the Book of Mormon was really the word of God and was true if he would be baptized on March 29th and he said yes!!!! It was insane! so we got the talk. Its by Melvin J Hunter and was given in 1954. It was amazing but we read it to him and he was so into it!  He is very excited to do more studying. He couldn't come to church cause he had plans to be in Alabama but he is going to a ward activity this week then he'll be at church on Sunday! We are going to dunk this man after all these years because of the MAYANS!! Who would have thought! haha and there are a lot of other cool things that happened but not enough time to write them all. And now to talk about Elder Cook! It was so amazing to be able to meet and listen to another Apostle! Elder Pieper from the 70 and Elder Parker an area 70 also came but they all had amazing talks and advice!! It was an answer to my prayers cause Elder Cook and Pieper both mainly talked about Agency and how we have to respect peoples choices but there are many things we can do to make sure that we help them make the right decisions! It was amazing and just an incredible week so I'm excited to keep it going. This week we have zone training meeting on Wednesday so I'm stoked to go to the temple again!"

Elder Quentin L Cook's visit

Favorite activity during Zone Conference!

March 17, 2014....

"It was another amazing week this week! It just goes to show that exact obedience and faith lead to miracles!! But we did see Satan play a role in a lot of our investigators yesterday! I'll tell more about it later. We had an elder in our zone share a story of his friend that died in the mission field about 2 weeks ago. He got hit by a car. It's so sad and it makes you realize how anything can happen at any second that can change your life forever!  We need to make sure we are living our lives to the fullest each and every day and to make sure we're living worthy to make it back to our Heavenly Father if any tragic accident occurs! But this week was awesome we got to go back and teach most of the people that we found which was sweet cause usually that doesn't happen. We had 8 member present lessons which is very high for this area and we are going to get even more this week! Bartow is doing great we taught him more about the Book of Mormon and talked about his baptism and who would baptize him and things like that so he is excited! He went to a high priest social that the ward had on Friday night. It was like a date night and they had a great time at that! But they were not able to make it to church cause it was raining really badly on Sunday and they didnt want to drive in it. They're 75 and both their hips were hurting...(satan) and then we taught a family of 5 that we found tracting last week and we went with a member and taught them the restoration and they loved it and were excited to come to church and they woke up Sunday morning and 2 of their kids were sick...(satan) We got a member referral for a man named Mahamodu Ahminu and he is so solid and super excited to learn more and he couldn't make it to church but is still excited to learn this week. That golden investigator that I talked about 3 weeks ago has been in Pennsylvania for 2 weeks but we got to see him again this week and it was an amazing lesson! It was at the church and we gave him a tour of it and committed him to a date to be dunked on April 12! But he couldn't come to church cause he was in South Carolina seeing his daughter...( not satan, good reason) but were excited for him. We got to show him the baptismal font and he got really excited! And with one of our investigators, Evaline Boykin, she is on date for the 29th of March and she really wants to be baptized. We are now just working with her and her boyfriend,  getting them married and getting the details for that! So hopefully we can get her married and baptized before the end of the month!! So lots of great things happening and I feel like there is not enough time in the world to do it all I love it!! We found 12 new gators this week so it was another awesome week of finding we know that because we have increased our faith and we are finding so many more people that all these other miracles are coming about!! I love this church and I know its true without a shadow of doubt and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else"

March 24, 2014....

"So once again it was an amazing week. I'll tell you what, if you're obedient and you learn how to really plan. miracles are like magnets! And yes, transfers are this week and the results are....... I'm staying!!! with elder J so I'm stoked. I asked President personally if we could stay together for at least another transfer so we can baptize these people so I'm happy! A lot of great things are happening. and I wish I was there to see all the mission calls. I can't believe its been more than a year since I've had my call. I mean in like 3 months I hit my year mark... sucks! I can't believe how fast its going.

This week was amazing. We worked very hard and found some amazing people. We as a mission have been doing these summits each week to help us clamp down and to push us and the first summit was to have every companionship have someone on date to be baptized or to double baptismal dates and as a mission hit 300 people on date, and we hit that!! We got 337!. The second week we wanted to have 300 people at church and we only got 150 but this past week got 190 investigators which is a huge jump! And this week we as a mission wanted every companionship to hit 10 member present lessons! Now that might not seem like a lot but to our mission, and most areas, that is very hard! We here usually average 5. so we had to work hard to make sure it happened and as a mission we wanted to get 1000 member present lessons! And we did it!! We got 10, and each in the district got 10!! And I was so proud of them for that cause its hard in our areas. And as a mission we got 1057!! We demolished our old high of 773!! So its amazing to see that if you have a high vision and you go for it, the Lord will bless you if you're obedient and just work your but off!! This week again we found a lot of new investigators! 15! And as a district they have caught the fire as well and total our district found 42 new gators!! Its amazing how we are finding so many families!! I'm just happy I get to be here and with Elder J for another transfer!!  But crazy cool miracle that happened last Sunday, our bishop called us and said a lady called him and said there was a baby that he wanted us to go give a blessing to but she was in Atlanta. So we got a hold of those elders and got them to do it. The lady that called was a member but the family of the baby is not. But after, we thought nothing of it and forgot about it. Now on Wednesday, we were out finding and we went to a street that I've been wanting to go to for about 3 weeks but we never could get there. But we were there this day and we went to the end of the street and the very first house we knocked on the lady answered the door and said "oh hi, are you the missionaries that went and prayed for my baby!!?" And we were like huh?? And then it finally clicked and we were shocked!! But we started freaking out and telling her the situation and that we had no idea where they lived and this was just coincidence!! But she said, "my husband will be home in an hour and I'm sure he'd love to talk with you too".  So we went back and taught this amazing family of 6 and just testified how this church is for them and its what they need, but the baby is doing a lot better I hear but we are going back tomorrow to teach them again. But its just amazing to see how the Lord puts people in our paths for the right reason and I was just amazed.  The next house we knocked on was a super 18 year less active who we didn't even have her records and hopefully we can bring her back into activity! But they're way to many stories to tell but don't worry mom I am writing them in my journal!:) But it was a great week and I just know its because of our obedience and by just hitting the pavement hard and knocking on a million doors!! Its all worth it!"

The Zone

They really do like each other

March 31, 2014....

" This week has been a wild one for sure! The work went great, it was a little slower but a lot of great things still happened. After this week we only have 2 people on date cause 2 of the people that were on date didn't come to church. But we did have the other two who are on date come and crazy story about that. While they were at church their car got towed away!!!! It was the weirdest thing cause after the 3 hours she was freaking out cause she thought it got stolen and she found out they did it cause they said she didn't make a payment, but she has the reciept that she did so it was wild and kinda funny. But it goes to show that even though we get them to church Satan is still gonna try and distract them from the spirit cause she said she loved the service then that kinda hurt everything but shes still good. Evaline Boykin, a lady we found last Christmas eve. and her boyfriend are the other ones on date. The bright family is great. We went and taught them with a member and turns out that the member knew his grandma because she was a member and the member actually taught the husband of the Bright family when he was younger!! Crazy, but they are awesome and we were supposed to see them last night again but they didn't make it back from the babies doctors appointment in time so we'll see them probably tomorrow.  But the BIG NEWS is the we got put on BIKES!!! In this huge area we got our cute bikes and just strolling on these Georgia hills and my legs are gonna get huge! On Wednesday, we got a call from the AP's saying that because of the influx of sister missionaries,  Pres. Harding doesn't want them on bikes so they took like 5 sets of elders cars and we were one of the lucky 5! So hopefully we can get the ward more involved now and get them coming out with us more. We've been averaging 20 or more miles a day for the past 3 days so its been a blast! My butt and my legs are super sore! But I'm losing weight so its good:) but I'm so stoked for conference!!!!! A missionary's favorite weekend!

Elders.....Lovin' their new bikes!